Engel sales climb 10 percent

Engel Austria GmbH, a manufacturer of injection molding presses, robots and automation systems, is expecting sales of approximately 1.5 billion euros for fiscal 2017, company leadership said during an Oct. 18 news conference at Fakuma.

The figure represents a 10 percent increase from 2016.

The company cited Industry 4.0 and demand for integrated systems solutions as drivers of growth and expansion across its production facilities.

"I don't see one big thing; I see 20 new things," said Christoph Steger, chief strategy officer of the Engel Group.

By 2020, Engel will have invested 375 million euros in its production facilities worldwide, including the expansion of a large machine plant in St. Valentin, Austria — its largest ongoing construction project to date. CEO Stefan Engleder expects that investment will be even higher as work continues to get underway.

"There's a good mood in the industry," he said.

Engleder alluded to a potential increase in Engel's machinery prices, but he could not provide an exact number for how much prices might go up.

Europe represents Engel's largest market, at 55 percent, with the company increasing sales by 50 percent in Germany alone.

"Germany continues to be the most technologically advanced market and the greatest driver of innovation," Steger said. "In addition, German companies are continuing to advance their global expansion."

Engel employs more than 300 in Germany and has invested roughly 5 million euros at its northernmost German location in Hannover, which houses its interactive technology center. The center accommodates large injection molding machines with clamping forces up to roughly 700 metric tons.

Worldwide, Industry 4.0 has been one of the strongest growth drivers, the company said.

"More and more, we are accompanying our customers throughout the entire lifecycle of injection molding machines and production cells," Engleder said. "Among other things, this involves even more intense consulting in planning production solutions, new possibilities in after-sales service such as predictive maintenance, continuous process optimization and the flexible adaptation of production solutions to changing tasks.

"In order to fulfill these requirements to our customers' complete satisfaction, we will require even more highly qualified and committed employees in the future than we do today," he added.

Engel plans to increase its workforce by about 8 percent, employing a total of 6,400 worldwide by March, the company said.